Grace Boarding House & Orphanage

OK, so the hard way to find out for sure what time the border opens to foreigners is to wake up at 5:30am, scoff breakfast and race to the border to be there at 6:30am (previously believed opening time) only to find out it's not open until 8:00am! Hmmm... After skulking around the streets for an hour or so, making friends with the locals and a word or two with the motorcycle taxi guys, Immigration opened and we were the first across the border. The early bird catches the worm. :)

We were a bit worried that we'd not be able to see the children before they left for school now that we were later than planned, but waiting to meet us on the other side was the boarding house mother for Grace Boarding School & Orphanage who had arranged to hold the kids back for as long as she could until we arrived. Avoiding the touts whilst appearing to be the regular type of tourist, we piled into the back of a songteaw (pick-up) and made a dash to the boarding house before the kids left. Arriving in time, we met all the 57 children before the first group left for school and shared some time with the rest of them until they went off to school. They sang for us some Christian songs in English and we treated them to our renditions of Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Both of which we struggled with the words. Bron finished off with a moving performance of All Things Bright and Beautiful.

We took some quick group photos and more of the kids crammed into a songteaw heading to school. They're in need of a lot of things at Grace Boarding House & Orphanage - food, (their main meal of the day is at lunch time, the other two meals are rice and fish sauce - seriously), salaries for carers, (currently they earn B1,500 per month - approximately USD34), toys, library books, (they have a book case but no books) and they'd love a truck so that they can transport the kids to school and no longer pay the B8,000 per month that would be better off spent on food for the children.

Grace Boarding House & Orphanage do currently receive some sponsorship from Singapore and parents contribute a bag of rice whenever they can (no rice during June to October, it's planting time), however it's impossible to feed, house, clothe, educate and provide medical treatment to 57 kids with funds received for 30. What Grace Boarding House & Orphanage needs immediately is funds. For just over B18,000 a year per child, all these needs can be met. That's the equivalent of approximately AUD60 per month, or USD45.

If you'd like to help let us know. We are happy to work with you to ensure your interests are met and your contribution is a best fit.

Quick Update...

After two very big days and 10 hours on the road, we arrived in Mae Sot late this afternoon. We're weary so will keep this post short. We have a free day tomorrow where we'll aim to update you all with news from the past two days. In the meantime, here's a picture we took while waiting for the border to open for foreigners. Before this, we'd had lengthy discussions between ourselves about sitting directly on the pavement, bought disposable raincoats to sit on and then promptly sat in the gutter with our friends without a second thought.

Mae Sai

After flying from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, two friends from World Education collected us from the airport and drove us to the northern border town of Mae Sai, just a short hour away. A bowl of delicious noodle soup from the mobile soup stall outside the hotel was all we needed before falling into bed. The choice of meat for the soup included chicken feet, beaks and all other parts of a chicken. Fortunately the maker of the soup decided we were thigh meat ladies and left out the entrails, beaks and feet! Tomorrow we're up at 5:30am for the border crossing.

Another trip in planning...

Preparations are underway for a trip to Mae Sot to visit 'our kids' at Du Pla Ya Boarding House, though we'll travel first to Mae Sai, a border town in northern Thailand, to meet 50 or so children aged between 6 and 16 at an orphanage that is without funding this year. We were first told about them by World Education, Thailand, who help where they can with educational materials (and trying to find a new sponsor) but just don't have all the funds necessary to feed, house and clothe these kids - so we're going to see what we can do. We hear the children are mostly Wa children who come from areas where there are no schools, meaning they live away from their families; if they have them. At the very least, it should prove to be an interesting journey...